Best of My New York '09

 So, I have officially left NYC for the summer. I'm back home in Texas, looking for a job, reading, watching movies, and being really lazy. As I was in the cab going to Laguardia, I realized that I had a ton of pictures of the food i've been eating all year so I decided to do a best of/my favorites. Note that some of these prized picks are biased because of where I live. For example, I hear the falafel at Taim is supposed to be pretty good, but I live close to Union Square near the delicious Tahini/Enda's Falafel Shop and so it wins my support. 

Best Cafe that serves food: Atlas Cafe

Best Pierogi: Veselkas 

Best Cupcake: Billy's Bakery

Best Bagel: Murray's Bagels 

Best Donuts: The Donut Plant

Best Burger: Paul's Da Burger Joint

Best Octopus Balls and Okonomiyaki: Otafuku

Other Bests:

Best Coffee- The Mercury Dime (I would choose this over Mud any day) 

Best Italian- Cacio e Pepe

Best Greek- Pylos

Best Falafel- Tahini/Edna's Falafel Shop

Best Hot Dog- Gray's Papaya 

Best Banana Pancakes: Joe's Junior

P.Nut and Honey B.

I'm almost 3/4 through my first year in college, which is ridiculous.

I feel like I haven't done enough, and yet so much has changed.

For example, I haven't been to any museums this semester, gone to billy's in chelsea, or seen Mario Batali. Don't get me wrong, i've done a lot here. I just feel like i'm running out of time.

A lot has happened these past couple of weeks.

For those of you that are close to me, you know that a friend of mine died just recently. I do not want to go into detail because I feel that this is not the time nor the place to do it. I just would like to say how grateful I am to have this amazing life and have such wonderful friends and family. I always had problems finding moments when I felt truly happy when I was in Houston, but now I have these moments everyday. I think part of it is just growing up and getting comfortable with who you are. I loved my life in Houston, but i've grown to be a little more mature and self-confident since then. I guess another part of it is that I have a very beautiful person in my life who has makes me realize how lucky I am everyday...

Though, there are times I miss my family horribly. My little sister is older now and is getting into all the things that older kids get in. Not bad things, just little things that I wish I was there to help her through.

Luckily, I am flying back to Texas on the 14th to visit everyone. Oh, and Logan's coming with and its the first time he's ever been to the south. I super-duper exciteddd!!! That was the lamest thing i've ever written, but seriously...this is a big moment in my life. I can't explain why, it just is.

Anyway, I spend most of my Saturdays cooking this semester. Here are some things that have been on the menu these past couple of weeks:

These are a Argentine/Uruguayan dulce de leche cookie called Alfajores. I had to do a Spanish project on Uruguay and I figured making ethnic goodies would boost up the points...it did. My Spanish teacher really liked them and even talked about them the next week we had class. The cookie part is just an everyday shortbread recipe and the dulce de leche part was actually made in the microwave. Heres the recipe if anyone wants to try it.

Dulce de Leche

Take one can of sweetened condensed milk and put all of it in a microwave safe container with no lid. Then put the container in the microwave for about 20-30 minutes (depends on the microwave) and put it on 50%. Stir every 4 minutes for the first half and then every two minutes for the last half. When its light brown and very sticky, its done.

Right now Logan and I are on a diet that mainly consists of food from the dining hall, coffee, and peanut butter. I grew up with Jif, but Logan loves Skippy. And I mean LOVES Skippy peanut butter. I personally think its a too sugary, but don't tell him i said that. he thinks i converted.

Anyway, here are some peanut butter cookies and the recipe I got online from Allrecipes.

The Whole Jar of Peanut Butter Cookies by Kevin Ryan

1 cup butter, softened 1 cup white sugar 1 cup packed brown sugar 2 egg 1 egg yolk 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 (18 ounce) jar peanut butter (I used skippy) 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup chopped peanuts (I omitted these and put chocolate chips in instead for a healthy alternative.)

Directions:

	1.) In a large bowl, cream butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, yolks, and vanilla; mix until fluffy. Stir in peanut butter. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the peanut butter mixture. Finally, stir in the peanuts. Refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours. my dough before its been refrigerated.
	2.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a cookie sheet.
	3.) Roll dough into walnut sized balls. Place on the prepared cookie sheet and flatten slightly with a fork. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Cookies should look dry on top. Allow to cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet before removing to cool completely on a rack. These cookies taste great when slightly undercooked. Cookies before they are cooked (i put a little sugar on my cookies)

The finished product that i kept in a air-tight container so i could preserve their moisty goodness and they wouldn't get stale.

I wish I could say that I made this but I didn't. Logan bought it for me on Valentine's Day at Chelsea Market and we ate together with butter and raspeberry jam. hearts are delicious.

Sup?!?!?!!

Shut up, I know i'm lame for not posting for the past, ehhhhh, two months and 6 days. I'm sorry, I have no good excuses for this except right now my life is fucking fantastic and i've been really busy enjoying it and trying not to screw it up. 

I recently went back to Houston for winter break and to Minnesota to visit the boi-friend. 

Here is a recap of what i did! excitement! 

Its important to include the cat when you are decorating for the holidays. We dressed diego in christmas attire. 

Sometimes, being in college makes you forget about real food since the most accessible place to get food is the cafeteria, not your mom. Here is something vietnamese themed (Pho, maybe?) that my mother made when i got back. She loves being ethnic. 

This one time, i found this weird heart-shaped cactus looking fruit at the market. I took a picture of it and sent it to my boyfriend because i'm precious like that. duh. 

The fruit is apparently called a "cherimoya.". According to wikipedia, it comes from the Andean highland valleys of Ecuador, Peru, and Chile....interesting. 

New Years! In Minnesota! Drunk! Ican'trememberwhatwentonhere!

More drunk! Mini-me Vern Troyer Big Brother celebrity hilarity drunk! 

autumn

Its autumn in new york and i love it...kind of. 

My mother calls me almost every afternoon, asking me how the weather is and if i'm still alive. The answer usually goes something like, "its really fucking cold and kind of raining. And its really fucking windy...and yes, i'm alive." 

Everyone is starting to wear those MichelinMan coats, gloves and scarves and other things I don't own yet because I'm from Texas and those sort of things aren't necessarily required when the temperature never gets below 70 degrees. 

I realize I haven't blogged in a while, thats probably because college was roasting me alive for a good two weeks. Now things are finally starting to get a little easier and I have more time to do things I actually like. 

For the past two weeks, my boyfriend Logan and I have cooked each other dinner. Each Saturday after breakfast, we walk to the farmer's market in union square to pick up fresh ingredients (mesclun, onions, peppers, goat cheese, etc.) and then go to food emporium (because wholefoods is way too overpriced and trader joe's makes me claustrophobic)  to pick up everything else. its probably my favorite night of the week, even more so than caturdays. 

Here is the tiramisu I made last week. I didn't beat the egg whites stiff enough, but it still ended up pretty good. I was scared it was going to turn into tirami-soup. Luckily, it tasted pretty great, especially with the expresso chocolate we put on top. The rest of the meal consisted of falafel, salad, warm pita bread, and little bits of things you normally put on falafel sandwiches (pickels, onions, tomatoes, hummus, etc) mind, we also made the falafel, granted it came from a box and all we had to do was add water, but still...i feel like making falafel is an accomplishment worth noting. 

This week, we decided to make a salad with pomegranate seeds, peppers, onions, mesclun, and fried goat cheese. it was good, like, really reallllly good. honestly i didn't do much in the kitchen this time. Logan wouldn't let me. Instead I dj-ed and danced around my kitchen whilst logan did all the dirty work. 

pom porn

Red peppers cost 3.75 at the farmers market....but i mean, its organic and worth it. plus that pepper is like, the size of a small child's head. 

The finished result, goat cheesy pomegranate goodness. 

Here are some other pictures from the farmers market

orchids

this wasn't in our salad, but i love the way the watermelon radish slice looks transparent in the sun. 

A little girl in a red dress. 

i own a turkish coffee set, so i figured it might be nice to make some with the orange chocolate trifle Logan made. Nearly 1/3 of it was whipped cream, so needless to say, i throughly enjoyed it. 

this is it, we did it

scenes from one of the greatest nights of my entire life. 

shivers

i could go into explicit detail about what i did this weekend, but i'm not going to bother. 

mainly because i don't have the time and i still have no idea who may or may not be reading this blog. i should also really be studying for a science midterm (oh college) but im really trying to avoid anything involving dendrites, ventricles, or axon terminals right now. 

i will say that this weekend (and in new york, weekends always start on thursdays...even though i have a class on friday...which i skipped this week, because,well...you'll see) was the weekend of parties. 

i don't think i really had a good break from it so i've sort of been chugging down ibuprofin, coffee,red bull, and falafel sandwiches for the past 72 hours. not to mention i'm getting to more than half a pack a day, which was the limit i had set for myself earlier this semester. 

anyway, i sort of did more running (not really, but figuratively) around new york this weekend. went downtown, then to brooklyn, went farther down bleecker than usual, little italy and i celebrated good ol' thirsty thursdays on the lower east side. (but only after the vp debates,obviously)

brooklyn was good, made a note to self to go to brooklyn more often. still haven't hit up williamsburg yet.

hot chip after party was on bleecker, which sort of ended up being slightly ridiculous. mainly because nobody knew where anyone else was for about 45 minutes and i had these mad hiccups at one point. 

and we celebrated a friends birthday in little italy at a place called Angelo's, where we all ate enough to have food babies the size of canada by the end of the meal. 

honestly, i'm really looking forward to next columbus day weekend because ive got four days off to....study.....but i highly doubt that will actually happen.

i feel it all

Somewhere between 48th Street and Broadway, 

between the departure and the arrival, 

between her and me,

between then and now

I lost myself. 

I lost myself in a city strewn with hot pavement, wet trash, and smashed cigarettes.  

I lost myself in a city that never sleeps, never awakens, and never shuts up. 

I  lost myself in a city that loves itself.

A narcissistic partner and an abusive relationship waiting to happen. 

But in these moments where I believed that everything in my life was completely meaningless and unimportant compared to the glow of the lights broadway and of the neon signs outside my bedroom window, 

I found myself...falling in love lost with a city, a supernatural being, an entire aesthetic known only to those who have truly experience it....

and i never wanted to be found again. 

This is my New York, or rather, my first two weeks in it. 

my first new york rain, and what do you do during such an event? 

you drench yourself by dancing in it....obviously

But on nice days, you can go to festivals. And eat fried oreos, if you are really in the mood for it. Mind, i come from the fattest city in the world so i've had my fair share of fried foods. i was more interested in the farmer's market at union. the entire square smelled like basil and fresh tomatoes. so basically, my heaven. 

Colors of all kinds, i believe this was sheeps' wool woven into thread. 

Through it was hot as hell by the time it was noon, i still felt like this was worth it. South American arepa with mozt flair......nice, warm, tasty, delicious. Food got my mind off the weather.  

Of course, everyone has their own alternative methods of dealing with heat. i believe naps in a stroller works just fine.